How a spray tan saved Roxy Jacenko's life.

The past year has not been kind to high-profile business mogul Roxy Jacenko. Her husband, Oliver Curtis, was imprisoned for insider trading in June, then just three weeks later the Sydney PR boss discovered a lump in her breast. A lump that turned out to be cancerous.

But while the timing of the discovery was torturous for the 36-year-old, it was also potentially life-saving.

“It was just lucky I was rigorously washing off my spray tan, which is why I noticed it,” she told 9Honey.

“And it was fortunate I noticed it when I did, because the treatment process that I went through post that would have been potentially very different.”

Roxy's operation was captured by 60 Minutes. Image: Channel 9.

Despite the fact her mother had previously suffered the disease, Jacenko described her own diagnosis as "a shock".

"It's really weird. You would think that if your mother had had it you would be really mindful of checking those kind of things, but it wasn't even in my mind," she told 9Honey.

"You know, I was working, I've got the children, obviously there was a lot of drama with my husband. And it was not really something I was thinking 'I best be checking'. But in hindsight now, it's like, it's negligent. Check!"

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Having caught the cancer when she did, Jacenko was spared the torture of chemotherapy. Instead she underwent surgery to remove the tumour in August and radiotherapy, which she completed in September - a process documented via a 60 Minutes segment and via her own popular social media accounts.

For now, it appears to have been successful. As she told 9Honey, she's currently in remission and is looking after herself with Tamoxifen (a breast cancer-preventing medication), a healthy diet and green juices.

"Look, you just hope it doesn't come back. There's nothing to say it won't, but I think it's all part of life and you just take it as it comes. And if it comes back, well then I'll do whatever I need to do then," she said.

Without her husband there to support her, it's undoubtedly been a struggle for the Sydney-based Sweaty Betty founder.

But she says her "incredible" children have had a "balancing" effect on her - "I think if I didn't have them I'd be at a loose end."

Of course, 2016 has not been easy for them either.

"Pixie, you know, she's had a hard time, but that's - I suppose - as well, at five years old you understand separation. Whereas for Hunter, he's two and separation to him is not something he really understands. He's too young," she told 9Honey.

"It's life and that's what you have to deal with. Yes, I shelter them a lot, but that's my job as a parent and I'll continue to do that. I'll protect them in whatever way I can."